Mealey's Personal Injury : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Personal Injury

July 31, 2024
Worker Seeks Damages For Injury At Fracking Site, Also Claims Discrimination

OKLAHOMA CITY — A worker who alleges that he was injured while performing his duties on a hydraulic fracturing rig has sued a well services company and the fracking operator that owned the well where the incident took place, seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
July 31, 2024
Plaintiffs Seek Reargument In Coverage Dispute Over Earplug Liability Claims

WILMINGTON, Del. — Plaintiffs seeks reargument of a Delaware judge’s ruling in favor of liability insurers in their lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying earplug product liability multidistrict litigation that resulted in a $6 billion settlement and millions of dollars of defense costs, challenging the judge’s finding that they have failed to demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact regarding their satisfaction of the self-insured retention under any of the insurance policies.
July 30, 2024
Dead Smoker’s Kids Defend $6M Verdict Against Tobacco Company’s ‘Forgery’ Theory

MIAMI — A smoker’s children on Jan. 29 filed an answer brief in the Florida Third District Court of Appeal urging affirmance of a $6 million verdict against a tobacco company, arguing that the company’s argument that records of the dead smoker being diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were forged is undercut by other evidence introduced at trial.
July 30, 2024
Illinois Jury Awards $24.46M In Asbestos Damages To Talc-Facility Janitor, Wife

CHICAGO — An Illinois jury hit Avon Products Inc. with a $24.46 million asbestos verdict, including $1 million in punitive damages, after finding the company responsible for a former janitor’s exposure to asbestos present at a talc-processing facility, sources told Mealey’s Publications.
July 30, 2024
Georgia Supreme Court Holds Statute Of Repose Tolled By COVID-Era Emergency Order

ATLANTA — Reversing a unanimous decision of a panel of the Georgia Court of Appeals, the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that a COVID-era judicial order tolling various court deadlines was authorized by law and applied to the state’s five-year statute of repose applicable to medical malpractice actions, allowing a woman’s malpractice claims against a hospital alleging the misdiagnosis of sepsis that resulted in amputations to move forward.
July 26, 2024
Hospital Appeals Order Reducing Verdict To $4M In Estate’s Wrongful Death Suit

BRONX, N.Y. — A hospital sued for wrongful death and medical malpractice regarding its purported failure to diagnose a fatal medical condition of a 63-year-old man has appealed a New York state justice’s ruling reducing the jury’s verdict against it from $6.1 million to $4 million and ordering a new trial but refusing to set aside the verdict as against the weight of evidence.
July 25, 2024
Judge Partly Dismisses Hip Replacement Patient’s Suit Over Defective Implant

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a motion to dismiss filed by several companies involved in the manufacture and sale of a prosthetic hip replacement who are accused of causing a patient injuries and lost wages after his implant began releasing toxic metals into his body, finding that the patient’s claims, including for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), are not preempted by federal authority.
July 22, 2024
S.C. Federal Judge Rules That Expert Can Testify In Tree Stand Injury Case

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A South Carolina federal judge denied a motion to exclude an expert who will testify that a tree stand manufacturer violated the standard of care, which led to a man being injured after the tree stand failed.
July 22, 2024
Judge Largely Rules For Insurers In Coverage Suit Over Earplug Liability Claims

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge largely ruled in favor of liability insurers in a lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying earplug product liability multidistrict litigation that resulted in a $6 billion settlement and millions of dollars of defense costs, finding that the plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact regarding their satisfaction of the self-insured retention under any of the insurance policies.
July 19, 2024
Judge: Expert Testimony That Injuries Related To Crash Unsupported By Evidence

NEWARK, N.J. — An expert who opined that it is possible that a man suffered a stroke as a result of injuries he received during a tractor-trailer collision cannot testify because his conclusions do not meet to the standards set under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, Fed. R. Evid. 702, and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), a New Jersey federal judge ruled July 18.
July 19, 2024
Judge Allows Competing Medical, Use Of Force Experts In Case Filed By Inmate

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge ruled on competing motions to exclude medical and excessive force experts in a lawsuit filed by a man who alleges that he was injured while an inmate at a California state prison.
July 18, 2024
Monsanto Files Official Notice Of Appeal In Pennsylvania Glyphosate Cancer Case

PHILADELPHIA — Monsanto Co. has filed a notice in the Pennsylvania Superior Court officially appealing the verdict against the company in a glyphosate cancer lawsuit in which a state court judge reduced an initial $2.25 billion damages award to $404,308,904.11. Monsanto listed the issues on appeal but did not provide the reasoning behind its challenge to the verdict.
July 18, 2024
CPAP MDL Judge Sets Date For Medical Monitoring Settlement Hearing

PITTSBURGH — The federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation involving the recall of approximately 10.8 million continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices will hold a final fairness hearing on Oct. 30 on a $25 million settlement to resolve medical monitoring claims in the MDL.
July 16, 2024
Judge Allows Expert To Opine If Speed Of Crash Supports Alleged Injuries

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska federal judge on July 15 denied a couple’s motion to exclude testimony from an expert opining on the speed, impact, energy and severity of a collision, finding that the arguments for exclusion go to weight, not admissibility.
July 15, 2024
Dollar General To Pay $12M, Make Nationwide Safety Investments Under DOL Pact

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dollar General Corp. and its retail subsidiaries will pay $12 million in penalties and make safety changes as part of its corporate-wide settlement presented to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).
July 15, 2024
Connecticut Court Hears Arguments On CDA Immunity In Snapchat Assault Suit

WATERBURY, Conn. — Snap Inc., which operates the Snapchat social network, squared off in Connecticut court against the parents of a minor who was sexually assaulted by two men that she met through the platform, with the social media company asserting that it is immune from liability for the rapists’ actions under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA).
July 11, 2024
Magistrate Judge OKs Expert Testimony In Case Alleging Death Stemmed From Crash

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge in Florida agreed to limit certain opinions offered by a medical examiner in a wrongful death suit stemming from an overdose of opioid medication but found that his other testimony is admissible and further ruled that a rebuttal witness can testify on possible causes of a woman’s injuries.
July 11, 2024
Pleadings Of Passenger Injured In Jet Ski Accident Survive Challenge By Cruise Line

MIAMI — In an action by a cruise line seeking exoneration from or limitation of liability for an accident involving two of its passengers riding jet skis supplied by it, a Florida federal court denied the cruise line’s motion to dismiss the statement of claims of one of the passengers and to strike her affirmative defenses to the petition.
July 11, 2024
Dallas Jury Awards $500,000 For Man’s Mesothelioma

DALLAS — A Texas judge entered judgment on a $500,000 asbestos verdict, finding that the plaintiffs are entitled to costs and various interest on the $325,000 in exemplary damages awarded by the jury.
July 11, 2024
Care Facility, Owner Seek High Court Review Of Ruling Affirming Arbitration Denial

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California skilled nursing facility and its owner/operator filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of a California Supreme Court ruling affirming the denial of their efforts to compel arbitration of an elder abuse and negligence suit filed against the petitioners related to a former resident’s fall and injuries.
July 10, 2024
Tobacco Company Not Liable For Smoker’s Laryngeal Cancer Death, Jury Says

MIAMI — A Miami-Dade County, Fla., 11th Judicial Circuit Court jury issued a verdict awarding no damages and finding a tobacco company not liable for claims that it defectively designed Virginia Slims cigarettes and caused a smoker’s death from laryngeal cancer. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
July 09, 2024
Court Deputy Files Scheduling Order In Malpractice Suit Against Rehab Home

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — At the direction of an Arkansas federal court clerk, a courtroom deputy filed an order outlining deadlines for discovery and a proposed trial date in a man’s medical malpractice suit against the nursing and rehabilitation center he alleges failed to provide him with the appropriate standard of care for his pressure ulcers, leading to infection and colostomy surgery.
July 09, 2024
Ohio Panel Reverses Judgment For Care Home, Finds Fact Questions Remain For Jury

CANTON, Ohio — An Ohio appellate court on July 8 reversed and remanded a lower court’s ruling that granted summary judgment to a nursing home in a wrongful death and negligence suit against it, finding that questions of fact remain for a jury regarding whether “proper monitoring” of a former resident’s urinary tract infection (UTI) would have prevented her death from sepsis.
July 09, 2024
Smoker’s Estate Opposes Florida High Court Review Of Engle Residency Requirements

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A smoker’s estate argues in an answer brief that the Florida Supreme Court should not review an appellate panel’s opinion affirming a $2.5 million verdict against two tobacco companies for the smoker’s death from lung cancer, writing that the panel’s holding that she was an Engle member despite also residing in New York does not conflict with any other case.
July 08, 2024
Federal Magistrate Judge Recommends Reduced Attorney Fees In CoolSculpting Case

ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge in Florida recommended that attorney fees for counsel who successfully defended a company in a design defect case be reduced from the counsel’s request after finding “that employing 15 attorneys and four paralegals for this matter, and requesting over $1 million in fees for a 13-month period, to be excessive on its face.”